August 11, 2018

A Year Later, Charlottesville Remembers Heather Heyer

“Gone but not forgotten.”

Heather Heyer's mother Susan Bro speaks with reporters in front of a memorial.Steve Helber/AP

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A year ago this weekend, Charlottesville was overrun with Confederate flags, swastikas, and torch-carrying white supremacists.

While much of the anniversary has been overrun with news about Unite the Right’s planned protest on Sunday in Washington, DC, many are using the weekend to honor Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old anti-racist counter-protester who was killed last year in Charlottesville when a suspected white nationalist drove a car into the crowd.

There is also a heavy police presence in Charlottesville this weekend and small groups of anti-fascist protesters:

After first tweeting a tirade against the FBI Saturday morning, President Donald Trump took note of last year’s violence, stating, “I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!”

Writers Jamelle Bouie and Jamil Smith noted that Trump’s continued emphasis on “all types of racism” and “all Americans” echoes his past reluctance to single out his white nationalist supporters for condemnation. Last year, he claimed there were “very fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville and condemned the “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.”

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Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

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